Ball bat



May 9, 1961 l.1. FLElscHER 2,983,512

BALL BAT Filed Aug. 20, 1958 FIG. 2

FIG. l

FIG. 3

FIG. 4

INVENTOR. JOSEPH FLEISCHER United States Patent BALL BAT Joseph Fleischer, New Haven, r`Conn.; assignor to Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation, a corporation of Virginia Filed Aug. 20, 1958, Ser. N'o. 756,093

1 Claim. (Cl. 273-72) The present invention is directed to an article of manufacture and deals in particular with a ball bat having a novel manual grasping surface upon the handle portion thereof.

It is a particular object of the invention to provide a novel article of manufacture.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a novel ball bat.

A further feature of the invention is the provision of a Aball bat having a handle portion formed with a grooved or checkered iinish effective to develop a desirable manual grasping surface.

A further feature of the invention is the provision of a ball bat whose handle portion is machine checkered to provide a grasping surface characterized by a plurality of intersecting grooves defining a regular pattern of lands or protuberances. y

A further feature of the invention is the provision of a ball bat having a handle portion formed with a checkered surface where the surface so checkered is partially or completely covered with a serving of pliable tape, theftape being suticiently thin and yielding and the checkering having suiiicient relief to permit the handle finish to be sensed through the tape, visually and by touch.

An article of manufacture embracing certain principles of the present invention may comprise a ball bat having a handle portion whose surface is formed with a plurality of intersecting grooves.

Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the succeeding specification when read in conjunction with the appended drawings in which:

Fig. l is an exemplary embodiment of a ball bat embracing the principles of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is an illustration of a portion of the handle area of the bat of Fig. l, somewhat enlarged, to show the detail of the checkering;

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 showing a variation of the checkered pattern of Fig. 2; and,

Fig. 4 shows an alternative embodiment of the invention.

For purposes of claiming the present invention, it is to be understood that the term checkered surface is intended to characterize a regular pattern of lands or protuberances created upon the surface of the ball bat by a machine operation performed in continuous and automatic fashion.

A machine operable to generate a surface Afinish of the type desired is disclosed and claimed in U.S. Patent No. 2,850,060, iiled March 27, 1957, by Gordon J. Voelz, entitled Checkering Machine.

In general, the surface is formed by cutting a plurality of intersecting grooves upon the ball bat in accordance with any desired pattern with the result that a checkered surface is developed, providing a desirable coefficient of friction between the ball bat and the hands of a batter.

It is also within the contemplation of the present inventionI that the checkered surface be so formed as to provide a suitable base l,upon which pliable tape may be wound or served, with the result that, although the detail of the surface is somewhat diminished, it is still sensible, Visually and'to the touch, through the tape, and provides the desired advantages.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, there is shown a ball ibat'10 formed of suitable wood stockV having an impact end 11 and a handle portion indicated generally by the reference numeral 12.

The handle is formed with a checkered surface characterized by a group of generally parallel grooves 13, intersecting a second group of parallel grooves 14 at an acute angle of approximately 45.

The intersecting grooves are effective to generate a plurality of raised portions dening lands or protuberances, indicated by the reference numeral 16, which, because of the uniformity of distribution` and symmetry of conformation, are effective to develop a desirable manual grasping surface upon the handle portion of the ball bat.

The raised portions of the handle enable the batter to maintain a tight grip on the bat without need for exerting additional pressure beyond normal pressure resulting in more natural swinging with improved eifectiveness due to increased confidence. The lirmer grip enabled by the use of a bat manufactured in accordance with this invention also minimizes danger of the batter releasing the bat after a hard swing. The checkered pattern also imparts a pleasing appearance tothe bat.

The checkering can be applied within any desired area of the bat and can be finished along the marginal regions thereof in any desired fashion, for example, to result in the scalloped effect` shown at 17.

Furthermore, it is also within the contemplation of the invention that the pattern of the intersecting grooves 13 and 14 may be varied as shown in Fig. 3 wherein certain areas of the handle portion remain free of grooves of one group or the other as indicated by the bands labeled 18 and 19 respectively in Fig. 3.

Note further that the invention contemplates serving or winding over the checkered surface of the ball bat a covering of pliable tape, such as conventional friction tape or thin plastic tape which adheres especially well thereto, as indicated at 20 in Fig. 2. Such covering while preventing contact with sharp edges or corners presents a good gripping surface because of the checkering.

In this embodiment of the invention, it is anticipated that the height of the protuberances machined upon the ball bat be so selected with respect to the pliability and thickness of the tape to insure that the general pattern of the machined surface remains sensible, visually and by touch, through the tape even though the eifect of checker# ing is somewhat reduced.

In referring to Fig. 4 note that in an alternative embodiment of the invention it is proposed that certain areas 21 disposed generally parallel to the longitudinal axis of the bat remain entirely free of checkering.

Invthis arrangement of the checkering, it is intended that the batter may be guided by feeling the checkered areas and the smooth areas to indicate the position in which the bat should be held so that the proper closegrained ber structure is presented to the ball.

It is anticipated that a variety of modifications and arrangements may berdevised in the illustrated embodiment of the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope thereof.

What is claimed is:

As an article ofmanufacture a baseball bat fabricated of Wood and having a handle portion and a striking por tion, said striking portion having a close-grained surface area and an openigraned surface area, said handle portion being generally cylindrical and having a machined surface defining a checkered nish eiective lto develop a manual grasping surface with a coecient of friction or a resistance to slip which is greater than that of the striking portion of said ball bat, said checkered finish being arranged in generally elongated areas with intervening smooth areas, said checkered nish and intervening smooth areas being so phased with respect to said close-grained area of the bat to be effective to indicate to a batsman the posiltion in which the bat should -be held to present said closegrained area to a ball.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Liberti Dec. 25, 1956 FOREIGN'PATENTS France Jan. 18, 1934 

